GeekSix

Random Acts of Geekiness: Mr. Holdman, we salute you!

Richard Holdman set the standard for intense Christmas light displays in 2007.  So intense that in 2008 his light display was moved from his gated community house to a property owned by his parents.  So, all you GeekSixers that are in Utah for Christmas this year, drive past Mr. Holdman’s display and let us know how it is up close and personal.  For directions and more information, please visit the Holdman Christmas page. ..read more

Presenting the winners of our “Art of Star Trek” contest!

Pardon our delay in printing the winners to our “Art of Star Trek” contest — we had dozens of entries to slog through, and while many were peaches, a few were… not really any kind of fruit you’d want to eat.

Here are a few of the highlights:

The light-hearted:

— Robots gone wild: One entry suggested that soulless villains are really creepy, and something like the Borg or Stargate’s Replicators would be a great fit. — Tribbles: Two of you suggested these deceptively harmful fuzzies would benefit from the IMAX experience. — Crossovers: The Ewoks, Darth Vader and even Nathan Fillion as Himself all made the list… curiously enough. ..read more

The most rockin’ cartoon themes of the 1980s

The mid-80s were the golden age of kid cartoon music. The previous generation’s music was either corny, or vague action themes with blaring trumpets. And, as the 90s approached, the era of Saturday morning cartoons started to decay.

But for a handful of years, cartoons had their pulses firmly attached to a pop-culture beat, and the theme songs that came out of that stretch of time were fantastic ditties that mirrored the then-exciting Top 40 soundtracks.

We consulted our horrible, Pop-Rock-addled 80s brains to come up with the 6 most rockin’ theme songs from 80s cartoons. It was hard to not just list our favorite cartoons — keep in mind, ..read more

Peoplewatching at a video game symphonic concert

Last night, I went with a few friends to “Play! A video game symphony.” You may have been to one of these events — it’s basically a pops concert for the Gens X and & Y crowd consisting of classic and hot game soundtracks. The music was well played, and the visual production values were a nice touch.

But, without question, my favorite part of the concert was the people watching.

I’ve been to plenty of normal symphony concerts in my life (and performed in more than a few). The audience tends to be a predictable mixture of septuagenarians, dotted with the occasional professional 30-something couple. It’s always made me a little ..read more

Q&A with Jason Paul from PLAY!

Coming up on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City, Utah Symphony will join forces with PLAY! A Video Game Symphony to being concert goers a veritable selection of popular video game pieces.

And just for you, I was able to snag an interview with Jason Paul, producer of PLAY! Aside from the snazzy name of Jason, I inquired about his motivation behind the show and what he will be bringing you.

And also just for you, I have two tickets to give away for Tuesday’s show and two tickets to give away for the next PLAY! show in Eugene, OR on April 24, 2010 thanks to Paul as well. Details ..read more

BarterTown – The Nerdiest Band in the West

So my band is playing a gig next week.  We were asked to get pictures together for the one sheet.  This made us all giggle awkwardly cause we’re nerdy and it’s the only way we know how to giggle.

We’ve made attempts at this in the past.  There was the traditional “at the folk festival and man it’s hot” shot

Then we tried to do the modern rock band thing where we all look cool in that one direction.  This was taken in the parking lot of my friend’s dad’s warehouse.  He lets my friend throw music festivals there every once in a while.  There were a whole buncha experimental and indie ..read more

22 versions of the Mario theme song

The consistently ‘on’ team of hipsters at CollegeHumor have posted a video playlist containing 22 versions of the Mario theme. If you scoff at such an overwrought list of cover tunes on a lousy song, you’ll be surprised.

I sat through each one — it’s a fascinating study in variations on a theme. You’ll find yourself hopelessly addicted, just as I was.

Even if you don’t sit through the whole list, click through to the first one — the theme song played with a remote control car and a train of glass bottles. And then you’ll want to watch the beatbox flute player. And the syrupy goodness of the piano/flute duet. ..read more

Play! coming to town

I know Josh is all fanwanky over his recent find of Eight Bits of Jam and all the goodness they are bringing to video games music or his 8-bit soundtracks of joy.

But here is what I am excited about.

Play! A Video Game Symphony will be stopping by my neck of the woods in Salt Lake City on November 17 at 8 pm.

As you may have noticed I tend to like my classical music. I tend to like it even more when it is either a film score or a video game score. A couple of years ago Video Games Live rolled through town, sold out a ..read more

Play classic games with the live soundtrack they were meant to have

What if you could play all of your favorite Nintendo classics, with their familiar tunes, but they were being played by professional musicians at your beck and call?

That’s the proposition of Eight Bits of Jam, an intriguing new project by pianist Scott Bradlee and saxophonist Ben Golder-Novick. Mute your TV, and they provide the dynamic theme music. Geek6 pinned the two musicians down for a quick interview (scroll to the bottom for the pitch video).

First of all, are you serious about booking gaming gigs? This sounds like the greatest April Fools’ idea ever. Would you really set up in my living room to serenade my Mario as he prances around ..read more

New Guild Funnies

Well I just got back from Vegas where I spent a couple of days of seeing the family fun side of the city. I had seen the sinnier side a couple of years ago in my youth.

But what joy to find after being gone after three days with no internet to run across (Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar by The Guild. Yet another funny inside running joke, but oh so right on the money. Felicia Day likes to play with ..read more